Pink Uniform
by lovestory121
Summary: Short story in which there is a laundry disaster, and a back robbery. A random guess at why Hawkeye's uniform went from purple to black.


Disclaimer: I own nothing and all mistakes are mine.

This story was inspired by my housemate, who decided to load a picture of us onto paint and turn herself into Black Widow and me into Hawkeye, and apparently 'the colours look a lot darker before you start painting.' So my Hawkeye costume was hot pink! This then lead to a discussion about washing machines and how Hawkeye would react if his uniform was turned pink. This story was then born and is dedicated to her, and for the record I don't know much about washing, so I have no idea whether red socks would turn a purple uniform pink, but for the purpose of this story…they do! This uses the characters from the movie but with Hawkeye's purple costume at the beginning.

This was a complete disaster.

Clint Barton was kneeling on the floor in front of the washing machine in the Avengers tower, staring at his uniform, his normally purple, now PINK uniform. He couldn't wear this! He wouldn't be a hero he would be a laughing stock! How had this even happened?! Reaching into the machine again he pulled out a pair of bright red socks! Someone was going to pay for this! The sound of footsteps lightly approaching caused him to quickly hide his pink uniform behind his back. He shoved the socks back into the machine and stood up.

"Hey Clint" It was Natasha. Damn it! She had been his partner for years, she was definitely gunna know he was hiding something! "Morning" he replied, getting ready to make a quick dash out of the room, both hands still holding his uniform behind his back. "Something wrong?" asked Widow "Nope, no, nothing, why would anything be wrong?"

Smooth Clint! Why not just yell 'yes my uniform's pink!'

"Okay then, I'm just gunna get my washing and leave you to you…whatever it is that you're doing" she took her washing out of the other machine. "I could've sworn I had some…" she trailed off reaching into the machine Clint's uniform had been in and taking out the red socks. So it was her! This was all Natasha's fault! Her socks turned his uniform pink! He was backing away from her trying to get out of the room, whilst at the same time formulating several plans for revenge, which unfortunately distracted him from Ironman coming up behind him.

He only realised Tony was there when he heard a snort of laughter and his uniform was ripped from his hands. "Hawkeye, what is this? Is this pink?! Hahahaha wait a second…is that your uniform?" Clint ripped it from Tony's grasp and turned to run back to his room, but ran straight into Captain America, bouncing off the bigger man's chest and landing awkwardly on the floor, uniform still in his hands.

This would be just my luck, normally no one else is up and now they all are! He tried to hide the uniform again but Tony prevented it. "Hey Cap, check out Legolas' new look!" Widow had turned around at all the commotion and immediately added two and two together. "Clint, I'm so sorry, I should have checked the machine!" Tony heard this and came to the conclusion that Hawkeye hadn't simply been bored of his look. "So wait, this was all an accident?" This earned him a glare and a half from Clint, which actually made him step back, away from the archer.

Steve was trying to suppress a laugh. Clint turned on his heel and started to stride out of the room, just as an alarm started beeping. "Oh great" muttered Clint. Tony clapped him on the shoulder and smirked "Suit up".

Hawkeye really didn't want to wear his 'new and improved' uniform, but he couldn't let the others go into danger without him. He sighed dramatically but left to change into his uniform anyway. Hoping that the media coverage of whatever was happening would be sparse.

Naturally when they arrived Clint noticed at least 5 news vans and around 8 reporters. This would all happen today, the day my uniform is a stupid colour! The incident itself was a bank robbery, normal humans, which was a relief. Hawkeye wasn't sure he could handle it if a super villain saw him like this, every time they encountered each other again there would be jokes and ribbing!

Still, even explaining to Banner and Thor what had happened when they convened outside the bank was not a pleasant experience. Banner hadn't even recognised him and Thor had just laughed, loud enough that all attention was directed towards them. Maybe dying on this mission wouldn't be so bad, at least then he wouldn't have to see all the news programmes trying to figure out why his uniform was pink, or face the others either, yeah dying sounded good. He shook his head, he was probably gunna die of embarrassment before they even started to try and arrest the robbers.

Ironman's plan was interrupted by occasional snorts of laughter, from everyone except Clint. Who'd finally had enough of being ridiculed and laid out a plan of his own, "Tony, Steve, Thor and Banner. You guys stay out here, make it look like you're preparing to come through the front door, Widow and I will get in from the roof and try to free the hostages, when they're all clear, feel free to come in and help us mop up the bad guys" He then turned on his heel towards the back of the bank, making sure to stay out of sight of the security cameras and the windows in case the would-be bank robbers were watching. Natasha looked at the others, who were watching the retreating form of Clint in stunned silence, before turning to follow him.

"Okay" Ironman said "What he said"

The layout of the bank was modern. The side that opened out onto the street was made up entirely of glass, allowing Ironman and the others to see the hostages and their captors easily. The staff only area was sealed off from their sight, by a cream coloured wall. The door to this area had a coded key pad on it, but the door was wedged open, meaning that some of the crooks could also be back there. The ceiling was open all the way to the roof of the area the customers were allowed in, above allowing them to see a limited amount of the level above. The area behind the cashiers had a ceiling. Tony didn't like it. The two members of his team who weren't bullet proof were the ones who would be in the firing line. Maybe Hawkeye's new costume would distract them from shooting. He felt a smile tugging at his mouth again. He had looked ridiculous!

On the roof of the bank, Widow was picking the lock on the roof access door, whilst at the same time apologising profusely to Hawkeye for dyeing his uniform. Clint was steadfastly ignoring her, focusing only on turning the security cameras to face the other way, shooting them with his arrows to refrain from being seen.

With a click the lock gave way and Natasha opened the door, signalling Clint as he shot the last camera, and the two of them made their way in. Natasha charged up her bracelets and Clint readied an arrow, but they met no resistance. Quickly and quietly they made their way down, checking each floor for any robbers as they went. "Clint?" Natasha whispered. He tilted his head but otherwise didn't acknowledge that she spoke. "Why won't you talk to me about this? I said I was sorry about the uniform, but it's no big deal right, I mean you've got more? We all have." Clint shook his head slowly. "I don't" the words were quiet and Widow had to strain to hear them.

She looked at him, but he was still focused on trying to get down to the lower floor, so she grabbed his arm and turned him round to face her. "What do you mean you don't?" He sighed, seemingly in two minds as to whether to answer or not, before deciding that she wouldn't leave him alone until he answered. "This was my costume at the circus. I never made another one and when I left there after…well after. This was all I had, it was designed by the circus but I got to choose the colour, purple reminds me of my mum. I never got rid of the costume coz it had sentimental value, S.H.I.E.L.D didn't care what I wore, so I kept it ever since." "And now thanks to my socks it's pink" Finished Romanov. Clint shrugged "Think we can focus on the mission now, there are people down there still." He turned and carried on walking, leaving a shocked Natasha in his wake.

She shook her head to bring her back from her thoughts and followed after him.

Getting down to the lower level was easy once they found the stairs. Now they were only one level above the ground floor. The floor on this level was open allowing full view of the lower floor. The hostages were all in the staff room. This time it was Clint who pulled Natasha over. "If I stay up on this level I can shoot down, give you cover whilst you get the hostages out."

_More like I can stay up here and no one down there has to see my pink uniform. _

Natasha gave him a look that suggested that she knew of his ulterior motives but didn't say anything. Instead nodding her head and sneaking down to the lower floor. Clint moved over to the banister that allowed him to see the floor below. Arrow already strung and eyes constantly scanning the floor below. He couldn't see Romanov from where he was, but he knew she would be able to take them by surprise. In the narrow confines of the stairwell she would press the advantage of higher ground, and her seemingly endless flexibility. Whoever was guarding the stairs wouldn't stand a chance. He would just have to prevent her from being swarmed and protect any hostages. It was a long shot from assassinating people but he was pretty sure they wouldn't even need the other avengers.

That was until Widow had taken out two of the robbers and the other three realised that they were being taken down. Natasha placed herself between the gunmen who were just emerging from the vault and the hostages and Clint knew in that moment that he would have to go down there and help, pink uniform be damned. Jumping silently from the balcony he made his way to the door, just as the robbers forced Tasha to her knees. He quickly drew and fired an arrow taking out the one with his gun pointed at his partner, the arrow his him in the leg and the man dropped the floor screaming. Giving Tasha the opportunity to disarm him and knock him out with his own weapon.

The second to last robber started shooting before he'd even emerged properly from the vault. Clint ducked behind a desk and saw Natasha slowly shooing the hostages out. He needed to distract the gunman, to let her get the last of them out, they wouldn't be able to fight properly with the extra worry of hostages in the room.

Outside the bank, Tony and the others heard the gunshots and immediately began to move inside. Getting cut off from their two assassins by a seemingly never-ending stream of screaming hostages. Eventually giving up on waiting for them to move, Thor threw Mjölnir at an adjoining wall and created a new door into the room. The four of them entered just in time to see Widow take down the guy who was shooting from behind, the robber having been entirely distracted by a fast moving pink blur that they could only assume was Clint. Only for the final robber to take aim at her from inside the vault.

Several of the avengers acted at once, Clint, now free from having to dodge bullets ran full sprint towards the robber and tackled him backwards both of them falling into the vault. Steve jumped towards Black Widow, raising his shield and protecting her from the bullets. Thor threw Mjölnir towards the vault, having been intent on closing it with only the robber inside and not one of their own too.

But everything happened too fast, with a metallic clang, Mjölnir hit the vault and the door slammed closed, trapping Hawkeye inside with a gun-wielding, would-be bank robber. Steve peered around his shield at the closed vault door and turned to congratulate the team on a job well done before noticing that the pink blur from before was nowhere to be seen. Tasha too had noticed this.

"Where's Clint?" Several more gunshots from within the vault was her answer.

Within seconds Bruce was on the floor, skin turning green and hands clasped over his head as the Hulk decided to take matters into his own hands. A ground-shaking roar, told the other avengers to get out of the way, and the green rage monster, jumped to the vault and pulled the door off its hinges, carelessly tossing it to the ground.

All four of the avengers that could fit ran into the vault to find their teammate. The inside of the vault was in complete chaos. Several dollar bills were fluttering down from the ceiling and bullet holes were in several areas of the ceiling and walls. On one side of the vault, the final gunman was lying unconscious, on the other, Clint was leaning against the wall, hand clasped tightly to his side, uniform slowly turning red.

"Clint!" Romanoff ran towards he partner, dropping to her knees at his side and trying to pry his hand away from the wound. Steve went to check on the final robber, making sure that he wouldn't be waking up and causing them some problems soon. Thor and Tony moved to stand by the assassins, Tony raising his faceplate as he did so. "If you hated the colour of your new uniform that much you could have let me spray paint it red before we left" his attempt at humour fell flat, but Clint's mouth curved upwards in a ghost of a smile anyway. "Knowing you, it would have come back looking exactly like you're armour and you'd have told the press that I was your sidekick".

Steve moved over to the Hulk, who was lurking just outside the vault, too big to actually fit inside. "Hey big guy, we need Dr Banner. Clint's hurt"

"Cupid okay?" The shock of the Hulk talking caught the attention of everyone in the vault. Tony turning to look at the archer with a grin on his face. "Cupid? That is by far the best nickname I have ever heard!" Clint groaned, although whether it was at the new name or because he was in pain they would never know, as he chose that moment to lose his tenuous hold on consciousness.

The Hulk immediately started to shrink back down to reveal a naked and flustered Bruce. He graciously accepted Thor's cape, making a toga out of it, before hurrying over to Clint. Sharing worried glances with the others along the way.

"We need to get him to a hospital, he's been shot, and I can't do anything to help him."

Two weeks later

Clint looked up from the infirmary bed in the Avenger's tower when all five of his teammates piled into the room. He raised an eyebrow at their expressions before running a hand through his hair. "Whatever it was I had no part in it, blame Tony"

"Hey" replied the billionaire "Why do you assume that we've done something bad, and why would it be my fault if we had?" Steve cut them off before the conversation could continue. "We made you something?"

"Should I be worried?" Clint directed his question at Natasha, who shook her head at him.

From behind his back, Thor pulled out a new uniform. It was mainly black, and didn't involve him wearing a mask. But it was fairly similar to his old costume. His arms weren't covered and there was a purple, red motif on the front of it.

"I don't know what to say" and he genuinely didn't, no one had ever thought to replace something of his before, he'd always done that himself.

"Thank you would be a good place to start" smirked Tony.


End file.
